Campus & Community

Take the Cold Turkey pledge to better the environment

It was a question Nora Nercessian couldnt answer, and like any good researcher, she made it her business to fill in the blank.

Dean Kim B. Clark presided over ceremonies on campus recently celebrating Gayle and Robert F. Greenhill M.B.A 62, and their family, who established a $15 million endowment last June supporting the Schools extensive global research efforts.

The Harvard University Art Museums (HUAM) will welcome Chris Van Allsburg, author and illustrator of The Polar Express, on Dec. 4 from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Fogg Art Museum. The focus of the event, held in collaboration with the Cambridge Public Library and students and teachers of the Cambridge Public School District, is an exhibition of Van Allsburg-inspired artwork by more than 200 area school students. These artworks have been submitted for an exhibit set to open at the Fogg on Dec. 4 (through Jan. 7, 2005).

Susette Kelo is about to get her day in court.

The ivory-billed woodpecker could be the poster child for the worlds dwindling biodiversity: Found across the South in the 1800s, its American habitat shrank steadily to a single tract in Louisiana and eventually one last individual, a female killed when her nest was blown apart in a 1944 storm. Small numbers of the birds hobbled on in Cuba, although none has been seen there since 1987.

As Harvards director of University Counseling, Academic Support, Mental Health, and Alcohol & Substance Abuse Services since May 2004, Paul Barreira has a very full plate.

If youve walked or driven along Quincy Street recently, you might have noticed something strange lurking beneath the Carpenter Center – something huge and vaguely oval-shaped, gleaming white but starting to acquire a patina of bright green.

At its fourth meeting of the year (Nov. 10) the Faculty Council met with members of the FAS Standing Committee on Women to discuss the recruitment of women to the Faculty. Committee members present for this discussion included Professors Marjorie Garber (English and VES), Drew Faust (history), Susan Pharr (government), and Ann Rowland (English). Nina Zipser, director of organizational research in the Office of Budget, Financial Planning and Institutional Research, was also present. In addition, the council approved the list of courses contained in the preliminary announcement of the Summer School of Arts and Sciences and of Education for 2005.

Nov. 7, 1898 – “The Harvard Bulletin” (predecessor of “Harvard Magazine”) publishes its first (four-page) issue. Cost: 8 cents. Nov. 10, 1903 – In the now-demolished Rogers Building (or Old…

Following are some of the incidents reported to the Harvard University Police Department for the week ending Nov. 8. The official log is located at 1033 Massachusetts Ave., sixth floor.

Harvard has named Isaac T. Kohlberg associate provost and chief technology development officer to oversee the development of new technologies based on discoveries made at Harvard.

At the Nov. 9 groundbreaking for the new Arsenal Center for the Arts, John Airasian (left), co-chair of the capital campaign for the Arsenal Center for the Arts, presents Jim Gray from Harvard Planning and Real Estate with a $1 bill, the cost of Harvards 99-year lease of the property to Watertown, part of an agreement reached with Harvard in 2002. Michael Miner, executive director of the center, is also pictured.

Members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) and Harvards Longwood campus have a chance to make a dent in global climate change and air pollution by going cold turkey with their on-campus energy use over Thanksgiving weekend. By participating in Go Cold Turkey 2004, students, staff, and faculty at FAS, Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Public Health, and Harvard School of Dental Medicine can notably decrease greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental impacts of their on-campus energy use.

Elliott Carter has been called the worlds greatest living composer. It is no slight to Carters artistic achievement to note that this distinction is in part due to his remarkable longevity. At age 95, the two-time Pulitzer Prize winner is not only healthy and active but still composing orchestral music of outstanding brilliance.

Stephen G. Breyer, associate justice of the United States Supreme Court, will deliver this years Tanner Lectures on Human Values Nov. 17, 18, and 19.

Kleinman receives Doubleday Award Esther and Sidney Rabb Professor of Anthropology Arthur Kleinman was awarded the Doubleday Award at the University of Manchester, United Kingdom, on Oct. 21. As the…

REAI panel to examine rising interest rates The Real Estate Academic Initiative (REAI) at Harvard University will host a panel discussion on “Real Estate Investing in a Climate of Rising…

Howard Mumford Jones Professor of American Studies Lizabeth Cohen, director of the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History, recently announced the names of undergraduate and graduate students awarded Warren Center grants for the current academic year. Established in 1964, the mission of the center is to further the study of American history at Harvard and to open Harvards facilities to scholars from elsewhere.

The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) will hold a celebration of the life and science of Fred Whipple on Dec. 4 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Science Center, Hall B. Whipple, the Phillips Professor of Astronomy Emeritus, died on Aug. 30 at the age of 97.

Following the Harvard football teams 38-0 blanking of Columbia this past Saturday (Nov. 6) at the stadium, running back Clifton Dawson 05 might feel right at home aboard a roving parade of Duck Boats. The sophomore sensation put the Crimson up 6-0 on a 2-yard run to collect his 96th point of the season, breaking Harvards 92-year-old single-season scoring record. Consider the great curse of Charles Brickley 15 – who set the record in 1912 with 94 points – reversed.

Harvard field hockey blanked visiting Columbia, 2-0, on Saturday (Nov. 6) to close out the Crimson’s regular season and improve the squad to 11-6 (6-1 Ivy). With the win, Harvard splits the league title — the stickwomen’s first in 13 years — with Penn (13-4; 6-1 Ivy).

Women’s b-ball poll sets pick for Crimson Members of the media recently voted the Harvard women’s basketball team second in the annual Ivy League preseason poll. The Crimson, which garnered…

Douglas Melton has been named one of Scientific Americans 50 national leaders in science and technology for 2004. The Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor of Natural Sciences was recognized for his work over the past year in developing 17 new lines of human embryonic stem cells, part of a long career researching the pancreas and its role in diabetes.

The David and Lucile Packard Foundation recently named Assistant Professor of Geochemistry Ann Pearson of the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences as one of its 16 new Packard Fellowship recipients for science and engineering. Each fellow will receive an unrestricted research grant of $625,000 over five years.

The Burroughs Wellcome Fund (BWF) has named Joshua B. Plotkin, a junior fellow of the Society of Fellows, as one of the 11 recipients for its Career Awards at the Scientific Interface (CASI). These awards encourage research at the interface between the physical/computational sciences and the biological sciences, recognizing the vital role cross-trained scientists play in furthering biomedical research. Plotkin received the award for his research on novel methods to compute selection pressures on proteins at the genomewide scale.

Last Friday afternoon (Nov. 5), the winds off the Charles River sent swarms of leaves swirling by the windows of the Ceramics Program Studio, while inside a group of about 30 people sat in tranquil silence. Some sketched or scribbled notes, some leaned forward, rapt, for a better look. The center of attention was Yo Akiyama – more specifically, his hands and the slab of clay he was working with as it spun on a potters wheel. With the nimble fingers of a masseur and a concentrated gaze, he manipulated the clay until its shape bore a vague resemblance to a lamp shade.

Timothy Johnson, medical editor for ABC News, will deliver the prestigious William Belden Noble Lectures in three parts on Nov. 15, 16, and 17 at 8 p.m. in the Memorial Church. The series is titled Finding God and the topic for Nov. 15 will be Finding God in the Universe on Nov. 16 Johnson will discuss Finding God in Jesus and on Nov. 17, Finding God in Everyday Life.

A memorial service in honor of John E. Mack, professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School since 1972 and founding chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at Cambridge Hospital, will be held at the Memorial Church on Saturday (Nov. 13) at noon. Mack was struck by a car and killed on Sept. 27 in London. He was 74.

President Lawrence H. Summers will hold office hours for students in his Massachusetts Hall office on the following dates: